[ Features | Specifications | Press Release | Available for Purchase June 21st ]

Introducing FirmTek's Flexible SeriTek/1VE2+2
2-Port Internal, 2-Port External Serial ATA PCI-X Host Adapter

FirmTek Announces the Immediate Availability of Their Latest
High-Performance PCI-X SATA Host Adapter for the Macintosh

Union City, California (June 21, 2005) -- FirmTek, LLC, the leading developer of ATA host adapter solutions for Apple's Macintosh, announced today the immediate availability of their newest Serial ATA host adapter: the four-port SeriTek/1VE2+2 featuring external and internal ports. This solution joins FirmTek's expansive and innovative line of Serial ATA solutions, which already includes the world's first Serial ATA adapters for the Macintosh supporting internal and external drives, the SeriTek "1S" and "1V" series, as well as the award-winning SeriTek/1EN2 external enclosure.

The SeriTek/1VE2+2 is designed with a 133MHz PCI-X interface to deliver extreme Power Mac G5 performance with high-performance compatibility on all other PCI-based Macintoshes. It features direct booting from any attached hard drive or volume, hot-swap capability, support for native Mac OS X RAID 0/1 (mirroring or striping), and it works with OS 8, OS 9, and OS X 10.1.5 and later on any PCI bus-based machine intended to run those OSs.

SeriTek1VE2+2 Specifics
This adapter offers four Serial ATA ports; two for internal drives and two for external. These ports are independently controlled to maximize performance at all times. The two external ports are fully shielded and support hot-swapping of drives at any time. This innovation allows for the quick connection of storage to virtually any PCI-based Macintosh for any number of applications, and the hot-swap feature means that multiple users or applications can share the same machine without rebooting between projects. Even a fully operational RAID volume can be unmounted, disconnected, and replaced with another volume without powering the Macintosh down, a feature pioneered by FirmTek. This can be especially useful in applications where large files like streaming HD video, or other media, are being captured and created.

With legacy G4 platforms, including most of the "Sawtooth" varieties of Power Macintosh, SeriTek storage solutions are capable of outpacing the system bus, where earlier storage technologies were slower than the G4 processor. This leap in throughput results in impressive performance when the processor is fully utilized. While the original Sawtooth machines will often exhibit throughput in excess of 130MB/sec, the later Digital Audio, Quicksilver and MDD systems deliver RAID performance nearly equivalent to the latest G5 towers. Given these older systems' greater internal storage capacities, this will be important for many video professionals and network managers seeking to maximize performance as well as storage capacity.

"The new SeriTek/1VE2+2 will give Macintosh users another option for next-generation storage, this one focused on flexibility," said Chi Kim Stanford, Vice President of Business Development for FirmTek. "With two internal and two external ports, users can now install permanent, high-performance volumes and support flexible hot-swappable external solutions without tying up two slots. This is ideal for users who see the value in both approaches, but can't accommodate a two-card solution due to budget or space constraints. As with our other products, each drive can be configured individually, striped with others using OS X's disk utility, or configured as high-performance RAID sets with third party solutions such as SoftRAID. This introduction furthers our belief that Mac users need the freedom to store their data their way."

For users considering the switch to Serial ATA for the first time, the SeriTek/1VE2+2 offers the key benefits of speed and capacity with remarkable flexibility and ease of service. With drives now surpassing 500GB each, there are few applications with requirements too extreme for the latest SeriTek models. When formatted and controlled by Mac OS X's RAID software, today's high-performance drives support the storage of uncompressed high-definition streaming video, which was nearly impossible to accomplish on desktop systems before the arrival of Serial ATA. The easy and accessible cabling of Serial ATA drives also makes installing and servicing them a snap when compared to their predecessors.

SeriTek/1VE2+2 Key Features and Benefits

• Four independently controlled Serial ATA ports; 2 internal and 2 external
• Exclusive hot-swap capability of stand-alone drives and entire RAID volumes; add and remove drives without shutting down the computer
• Latest 133MHz PCI-X interface technology
• Compatible with all PCI-based Power Macintosh computers; deliver top performance on "Sawtooth" G4, and all G5 computers
• Supports direct booting from any attached drive
• Boosts overall system performance with data transfer rates of up to 150MBytes/sec or 1.5Gbits/sec per port
• Supports Mac OS 8, OS 9, and OS X version 10.1.5 or later
• Provides performance and protection: Supports native OS X RAID 0/1; OS 9 RAID with third party software
• User-upgradeable firmware for easy updates
• Large LBA support for drives larger than 137GB
• Includes two "works with Macintosh" thin and flexible SATA cables to allow easy, optimal placement of internal devices
• Ideal for backing up large amounts of data - perfect for multimedia-intensive applications: audio/video capture and editing, graphics manipulation and high-end digital publishing

Pricing and Availability

FirmTek's SeriTek/1VE2+2 Serial ATA host adapter is available now and priced at USD $139.95 (SATA-1VE2+2). Specially priced bundles with external enclosures are available. For more information on these and other storage solutions, please visit FirmTek's website at www.firmtek.com..

About FirmTek

Headquartered in Silicon Valley and founded in 1998 by former Apple engineers, FirmTek is the leading hardware and firmware research and development company focusing on Macintosh ATA storage technologies. The company takes pride in developing the most reliable and compatible high performance enhancement solutions, offered through FirmTek's OEM partners and worldwide distribution channels. For information regarding FirmTek's products and operations, visit FirmTek's website at www.firmtek.com.